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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 1998)
CONTACTING US NEWSROOM: (541)346-5511 E-MAIL ode@oregon uoregon edu ADDRESS: Oregon Daily Emerald P.0 80X3159 Eugene. Oregon 97403 ONLINE EDITION: www uoregon edu/-ode EDITOR IN CHIEF Sarah Kickler EDITORIAL EDITOR Mike Schmierbach NIGHT EDITOR Nicole Krueger 7his Valentine’s Day, consider changing a few words in your rhetoric — and possibly making a drastic adjustment to your perspective t Cupid’s arrows do not always fly straight, but gloriously queerly as well. And so, in loving tribute to my roman tic comrade Matthew, who fell to the epidemic on Valentine’s Day three years ago, the following question naire, which found its way around the San Francisco gay community a few ago, is offered to Mr. Mahon and Co. How dare you tell us that our chosen families, whom we love above all else and to whom we de vote our lives, Eire simply not “fami lies” at all but sinful liaisons that are undermining the traditional and moral fabric of our society and threat ening to destroy it? 1. What do you think caused your heterosexuality? 2. When and how did you first de cide you were a heterosexual? 3. Is it possible your heterosexuality is just a phase and that you will grow out of it? 4. Is it possible your heterosexuality stems from a neurotic fear of the same sex? Maybe you just need a positive gay experience. 5. Heterosexuals have histories of failures in gay relationships. Do you think you may have turned to hetero sexuality out of fear of rejection? 6. If you’ve never slept with a per son of the same sex, how do you know you wouldn’t prefer that? 7. If heterosexuality is normal, why are a disproportionate number of mentally ill patients heterosexuals? 8. To whom have you disclosed your heterosex ual tendencies? How did they react? 9. Your heterosexuality doesn’t offend me as long as you leave me alone, but why do so many heterosex uals try to seduce others into that ori entation? 10. If you should choose to nurture and or have children, would you want them to be heterosexual, knowing the problems they would face? 11. Most child molesters are hetero sexual. Do you consider it safe to ex pose your children to heterosexuals? Heterosexual teachers, particularly? iz. wny must heterosexuals be so blatant, making a public spectacle of your heterosexuali ty? Can’t you just be what you are and keep it quiet? 13. Heterosexuals always assign them selves such narrow ly restricted, stereo OPINION Hannah Dillion iypea sex roies. wny ao you cling to such unhealthy role-playing? 14. How can you have a hilly satis fying, deeply emotional or sexual ex perience with an opposite-sex person, when the obvious physical, biological and temperamental differences are so vast? How can a man possibly under stand what pleases a woman sexually and vice versa? 15. Hetero sexual mar riage has total societal suDDort yet the divorce rate continues to grow. Why are there so few stable het erosexual relationships? 16. Since there are so few happy heterosexuals, tech niques have been developed to help people change. Have you considered trying aversion thera pyr 17. Could you trust a heterosexual therapist/counselor not to try to influ ence you toward his or her own sexu al leanings? 18. Do heterosexuals hate and/or distrust others of their own sex? Is that what makes them heterosexual? 19. A disproportionate number of criminals, welfare recipients and oth er irresponsible types are heterosexu als. Why would someone hire a het erosexual for a responsible job? 20. Why are heterosexuals so promiscuous, always having "affairs,” | etc.? I 21. Happy Valentine’s Day. Hannah Dillon is a columnistfor the Emerald. Her work appears on alter nate Fridays. Her views do not necessar ily represent those of the newspaper. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Clarify traffic appeals We feel it is important to clear up a few errors in your article “Board hears student parking violation ap peals” (ODE, Jan. 21). There are two steps in protesting a University parking citation: 1. An initial written petition, which is read and decided upon by the traffic petitions officer. 2. If the petitioner is not satisfied with that decision, they can submit a written appeal to the Traffic Ap peals Board. In that written appeal, they may request to appear before the appeals board at the next meet ing. Frequently, that request is grant ed. If the person does not appear, the board’s decision is based solely on the written materials presented to them. The end result can be a waiv ing of the fine, a reduction of the fine or an upholding of the fine (denial oi the petition and appeal). It is important to be clear that it is the University Traffic Appeals Board (faculty and staff members ap pointed by the University commit tee, students appointed by the ASUO) and as such is completely independent from the Office of Pub lic Safety. OPS plays no part in the petition or appeals decision-making process. Further, the traffic petitions officer is a non-voting, ex-officio member of this board, appointed by the University administration. Generally, the appeals board will consider between 15 and 20 appeals each monthly meeting — not 3,500 per year. The traffic petitions officer may consider between 2,000 and 3,000 petitions from students, facul ty and visitors each year, but only a very small percentage of those are ever appealed to the board. We feel that anyone wishing to petition or appeal a University cita tion should read Pages 8 and 9 in The University of Oregon Parking Rules and Regulations — this sec tion presents the process in a clear and concise manner. Rand Stamm Parking and Transportation, OPS Gender neutrality Given the gender-neutralizing ac tivity that permeates our beloved campus even into its smallest, most remote corner, I find it simply amazing that no one has gone into a shrill frenzy over the term: fresh"MAN.” Bill Smee University employee Thumbs TO RAISING MAR RIAGE AGES: A group of legisla tors in Utah are trying to raise the age at which a per son can legally be married. Currently, children as young as 14 can get mar- ’ ried, provided they have the consent of at least one par ent Some county officials have re ported assigning marriage Hcenses to girls whom die officials suspected i might have been sold into marriage or who might have been part of an arranged marriage. Clearly, either situ ation should be avoided, but even “consensual" mar riages at so young an age are trouble some. Under state laws, some of these Children won't beaflowed to have sexfor four years, yet they are considered mature enough to enter a theoretically life long bond. TO POSSIBLE CSMSOilSttlPBY THE ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT: A group of stu dents who took banners to a foot ball game claim the security guards hired by the de partment confis cated the banners protestirw Nike do nations. The de partmentinsists die banners were removed only be cause they were heldonsbcks, which are against department rules, but it seems un likely it was neces sary to confiscate the entire banner if the problem was a pair of removable sticks. Moreover, the situation has produced a string of confusing and possibly contra dictory explana tions. Alt of this suggests some kind of censorship may have taken place, which would clearly be trouble some.
